Healing a Herniated Disc - Pain Resolution Requires a Personalized Treatment Plan

To solve the most complicated herniated disc and structural pain problems, three types of tissue must be specifically evaluated and repaired. These three are:

1. Passive Spinal Tissues including spinal discs, ligaments, cartilage and bones

2. Active Spinal Tissues including muscle and associated connective tissues

3. Control Tissues including both ingoing and outgoing nerves, the spinal cord and the brain and brainstem

Corrective procedures must be designed specifically for your condition to minimize the stresses on all these tissues and to optimize their function to allow your spine to be as close to normal as possible. Only then can you heal properly.

Water and nutrition must be supplied to all tissues of the body. The healthy spinal disc nucleus is 88% water. Degenerative discs are dehydrated and have abnormal function. You must begin with hydrating your body to achieve disc rehydration and reduction of musculoskeletal symptoms.

Muscle spasm prevents motion of the spine which will not allow spinal structural correction. Proper treatment will reduce these spasms and any accompanying adhesions and begin remodeling of scar tissue in old spinal injuries. This will reduce the soft tissue resistance to the structural improvement you need to make.

Then the disc must undergo alternate loading and unloading cycles to soften the hard dehydrated discs. This will temporarily remove the elastic energy from the disc so spinal change can occur. This will also aid in disc rehydration. Sometimes the use of a specially designed exercise chair such as a Pettibon Wobble Chair, will focus motion directly at the lowest spinal discs and magnify the healing process.

Spinal axial decompression may be required after the soft tissues have been prepared. Decompression is utilized to create motion throughout the spine. A unit such as the DRX-9000 Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression unit can be used for this procedure because of its' safety and comfort features.

The best spinal structural correction can only be accomplished with full spinal movement. This may require alignment of the upper body on top of the lower body using specific spinal adjustments. Most herniated disc treatment programs fail at this step and leave you with less than ideal results.

You may also use head and body weights to allow structural and postural correction of the spine. This helps strengthen the muscles of the spine,restores the normal lordosis and accelerates correction of the spine.

Once these steps have achieved most of the correction, the muscles must be strengthened to allow the curves to stabilize. As the muscles strengthen they will be better able to hold the new corrected curves.

Only then can the postural coordination patterning be programmed into your nerve system so it becomes correct and unconscious. Just like any new habit, it takes time for your body to get fully adapted to these changes.

Unless all three tissue types are fully addressed and allowed adequate time to adapt to the changes made there will be a tendency for the body to fall back into the same pattern and healing will be incomplete.